Kitchening Abouta bit-of-everything blog

Happy Deepavali! Hope you are having the most amazing one with family and loved ones.

This deepavali, I was stumped for ideas for sweets to consume while on the keto lifestyle. I even toyed with the idea of having the Choc Chia Pudding or Berries & Cream Chia Pudding but what’s an Indian festival without an Indian sweet, ey?

After a quick squiz in the fridge and pantry, I realised that I could put together a simple yet yummy kesari. In my home, growing up, kesari was one of those quick-fix sweets for when guests arrived unexpectedly or when that sweet craving hits at an ungodly hour. Not much has changed clearly with the whole last-minute sweet scrambling!

I was mighty pleased with the final output. So presenting to you the keto kesari for the sweet factor to your healthy meals without hampering your macros.

Paneer, single-handedly has to be one of the best vegetarian fat source in a ketogenic meal. It’s the kind of ingredient that can help you hit your fat, protein macros for a meal while keeping things low carb. Also, it’s the softest, tastiest cheese ever! If you haven’t tasted paneer before, what are you doing?! You are most certainly missing out.

Cauliflower is one of the most preferred vegetable sources for the ketogenic and low carb lifestyles. The cruciferous vegetable is a powerhouse of nutrition, loaded with the vitamin and mineral goodness. A bit of Google research also tells me that it has a host of other things that make it one of the most nutritious vegetables whether you follow a ketogenic lifestyle or not.

Aside from being a hero vegetable, I find cauliflower versatile for so many dishes – pizza base, cauliflower fried ‘rice’, curry, Cauli ‘mac’ n cheese, roasted, in a soup…I can do this all day! Is there anything that cauliflower can’t do? Lol.

While the thought of cauliflower rice and pizza sounds incredible, all that I crave for sometimes is a simple dish made with the vegetable.

Being on a ketogenic lifestyle doesn't mean you can't enjoy the sweet things. What if I told you you could enjoy a dessert-like dish for breakfast? That's right, a breakfast that can easily pass for dessert, the Berries & Cream Chia Pudding is the bee's knees!

You can't really go wrong with the berries and cream combination, add the mix chia pudding and you get the dreamiest and creamiest brekkies of them all!

Incredibly easy to put together and with just 6 ingredients, it doesn't get much simpler than this! This is a go-to breakfast in my home and I prepare it overnight for a grab-and-go breakfast.

Comfort food does not get better than this delicious North Indian curry. Soft paneer cooked in a rich and creamy spinach gravy, this versatile curry makes a perfect accompaniment to naans, rice, rotis or just on its own.

Palak paneer gets made at home quite often. It makes one of the quickest weeknight dinners. Even more so with me following the ketogenic way of eating, this curry has become a staple. It is perfect to hit the fat macros and to consume greens for the day. I love that I can bulk up the fat macros by adding more paneer/cream/butter. To me, this is a meal in a bowl and don't need anything to mop up the curry with.

Note: The recipe's ingredients are created with a ketogenic and low carb diet in mind. Tweak the fat components if you do not want a very rich curry. Increase the spinach and vegetable quantities to suit your dietary needs.

After toying with the idea of making a video recipe for the longest time, I have finally decided to take the plunge and do it! This is my very first attempt at making one, and hope you enjoy it.

I have chosen a simple recipe to kick start a series (hopefully!) of video recipes. This is a go-to egg curry recipe in my home. This has become a regular feature in my meal plans since starting the ketogenic way of life. A great low-carb curry delivering the goods. Ticks the box for flavour, nutrition and wholesomeness.

The good fats for the pudding comes from chia, and rendering its chocolatey flavour is the cacao, rich in anti-oxidants and micronutrients! Chia seeds are filling, tasty and in combination with the cacao makes one of the easiest and tastiest keto breakfasts ever.

I love me a warming cup or two of chai every day. I am not someone who just drinks tea, I guzzle it. To me, the sweet, spicy chai is liquid gold.

When I started reading about going keto, I was bracing myself for the possibility of not having chai again. No milk, no sugar! Can you imagine my disappointment? Also, chai without milk isn’t much fun.

The keto way of eating has room for coffee (not the milky one, duh!), and it is called bulletproof coffee. Cute name for coffee, no? But seriously, Google tells me it was named so because it uses some ingredients to make the coffee that much more potent and that it was a key part of the Bulletproof Diet.

Now, if milky coffee is possible without the addition of sugary milk surely, this can be worked around for tea too?

After reading and researching ingredients for bulletproof coffee, I’ve made myself a not-so-complicated bulletproof chai. I am surprised how delicious it turned out.

It was creamier and heaps more delicious than regular chai.

There are many versions of the keto bulletproof chai but my take on it is simple yet yummy.

I am the traditional toast-for-brekkie or Indian food kinda girl. Have been for several years. You wouldn't have caught me having a smoothie for breakfast; anyone who'd try to sell me the concept of smoothies for breakfast would have a mocking remark about what a joke of a meal that was.

I couldn't be more further from the truth! I am going to blame it on my untrained palate that was treated to only spicy & savoury meal first thing in the morning.

Thankfully, that has changed and now smoothies have become a frequent part of my meal plans. I enjoy the convenience of them but most of all I love how I can pack in more raw fruits and vegetables in my day in smoothies.

Here is one of them I love and include often each week. Don't be put off by the thought of a green smoothie; it is delicious, nutritious and family friendly. If you're trying to convince your kids, tell them it's Hulk juice or something like that! ;)

Phew! I am so glad the month has come and gone; it’s been a helluva busy one. The highlight of the month is me braving the ketogenic lifestyle. It’s has been good so far but I am taking a break from it for 3 weeks because a holiday at home, in Chennai. I would love to commit to it more seriously upon my return. For now, I am going to leave you with these things I have loved in May.